Huang et al. (2021) — Seawater sea-sand engineered/strain-hardening...

Citation

Bo-Tao Huang, Jia-Qi Wu, Jing Yu, Jian-Guo Dai, Christopher K.Y. Leung, Victor C. Li (2021). Seawater sea-sand engineered/strain-hardening cementitious composites (ECC/SHCC): Assessment and modeling of crack characteristics. Cement and Concrete Research, Vol. 140, Article 106292.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconres.2020.106292
Atlas layer: extension
Related Victor Li book chapter: Chapter 4: Sustainable/Marine ECC; Chapter 7: Durability; Chapter 9: Design Principles
Source PDF: huang-2021-seawater-sea-sand-engineered-strain-hardening-cementitious-composites.pdf
Extracted text: atlas/full_text/huang-2021-seawater-sea-sand-engineered-strain-hardening-cementitious-composites_full_text.md
Source note: atlas/source_notes/huang-2021-seawater-sea-sand-engineered-strain-hardening-cementitious-composites_source_note.md

Why this paper matters

Landmark marine ECC paper co-authored by Victor Li, establishing a five-dimensional performance representation system and a probabilistic Weibull crack-width evolution model for high-strength SS-ECC ($f_c > 130\text{ MPa}$, $\sigma_{tu} \approx 8.8\text{ MPa}$, $\varepsilon_{tu} > 7.0\%$), bridging material crack width control with structural serviceability design.

Main contribution

Formulated a 5D multi-criteria assessment framework integrating compressive strength, tensile strength, tensile ductility, mean crack width, and crack width variability.
Proved that the 2-parameter Weibull distribution outperforms the log-normal model in capturing stochastic crack width distributions ($r_W > 0.96\text{--}0.98$) across all strain levels.
Established an empirical model allowing engineers to predict critical allowable tensile strain ($\varepsilon_{crit}$) for any prescribed crack width threshold at a given reliability level.

Evidence summary

Mechanical properties: Compressive strength $>130\text{ MPa}$; tensile strength up to $8.8\text{ MPa}$; tensile strain capacity scaling from $2.5\%$ (6 mm PE) to $5.0\%$ (12 mm PE) and $>7.0\%$ (18 mm PE) (Figs. 3, 4).
Crack characteristics across strain levels: At service strain ($\varepsilon = 0.2\%$), crack widths are $35\text{--}42\ \mu\text{m}$; at ultimate failure, 40–60 cracks develop with Weibull scale parameter $\lambda \approx 64\ \mu\text{m}$ (Table 4, page 5).
Sand particle size: Sea-sand maximum sizes up to 4.75 mm maintain $>130\text{ MPa}$ compressive strength and tight serviceability crack widths.

Linked Atlas nodes

04_material_systems/green_ecc.md
02_concepts/extreme_ductility_ecc.md
02_concepts/strain_hardening_criteria.md
05_experiments/direct_tensile_test.md

Claim-evidence rows to add

Atlas node	Claim	Evidence summary	Page/Figure/Table	Status
`04_material_systems/green_ecc.md`	High-strength SS-ECC with 18 mm PE fibers achieves compressive strength >130 MPa, tensile strength of 8.8 MPa, and tensile ductility exceeding 7.0%.	Direct tension testing confirmed 18 mm PE fibers expanded tensile ductility from 2.5% to >7.0% at $f_c > 130\text{ MPa}$.	Pages 3-4, Section 3, Figs. 3, 4	verified_from_pdf
`02_concepts/strain_hardening_criteria.md`	A two-parameter Weibull probabilistic model accurately predicts the evolution and scatter of crack widths in SS-ECC under tensile strain.	Statistical fitting of digital optical crack images yielded Weibull correlation coefficients $r_W > 0.96$ across five strain stages.	Pages 4-6, Section 4.2, Table 4, Figs. 5-7	verified_from_pdf

Verification status

PDF preserved: yes (huang-2021-seawater-sea-sand-engineered-strain-hardening-cementitious-composites.pdf)
Text extracted: yes (atlas/full_text/huang-2021-seawater-sea-sand-engineered-strain-hardening-cementitious-composites_full_text.md)
DOI verified: yes (10.1016/j.cemconres.2020.106292)
Page/figure/table verified: yes
Claim-evidence matrix ready: yes

Cautions

Optical image resolution was $15\ \mu\text{m}/\text{pixel}$.
High internal chloride content requires pairing with non-corrosive FRP or stainless steel reinforcement.